Category Sales

by Marc Fanelli The line between B2B and B2C has never been blurrier. B2B buyers expect the same level of relevance, responsiveness, and personalization in a B2B setting as they do when shopping for a new pair of headphones online. The shift to hybrid work, proliferation of digital channels, and rise of cross-functional buying committees have made traditional firmographic targeting increasingly obsolete. Enter the business-to-person (B2P) model. B2P isn't just a new acronym; it's a new strategic mindset. To stay competitive, B2B marketers must embrace the complexity of reaching real individuals across channels, devices, and roles. Done right, this shift unlocks…

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You can now preorder my book on Amazon - HEYO! Here’s the link! And here’s this week’s podcast, our last podcast of the year. We talk about this post (and my fight to keep the part about raccoon breeders in the book).https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/5nm0nxRxZDJPwj05xgZkf9 If you read any sales book, you’ll see that the first part of a sales call - or even the whole first call - is supposed to be this very important thing called “discovery.” In this “discovery” thing, we are supposed to ask questions. The prospect should respond with words. Their words should inform our pitch and demo. At a high level, this…

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BY GEORGE BRONTÉN One of my pet peeves is salespeople sending out proposals too soon. You’ve heard me talk about it before. In complex sales, proposals should never be the first thing you send, unless it’s with an existing customer who already knows you and knows they’re ready for something specific from you. Aproposal that is sent too early makes you cannon fodder. Your sales team discovers a lead, whether through an RFP, marketing lead, or outbound prospecting activities. The prospective customer thinks they know what they want, and they ask for a price. The salesperson gets excited, asks a few questions,…

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When customers aren’t ripping your product out of your hands, it’s very hard to know why. Is it your messaging? Positioning? Pricing? Product? Are you targeting the wrong ICP? Do you say something at minute 27 in every sales call that causes the perfect-fit customer to turn and run away? There are infinite reasons it might not be working and infinite things you could change. This might be the hardest part of the early stage, before the business’s physics are obvious. With ~infinite directions, it would be weird if you “fixed” the problem without knowing what the problem actually is. Worse: If you’re…

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BY BOB APOLLO For decades, sales pipelines have been built around the seller’s activities. Familiar stages like discover, qualify, demo, propose, negotiate, close  are deeply embedded in most CRM systems, forecasts, and reviews. But in today’s complex B2B environments, this approach tells us more about what the seller has done (or claims to have done) than what the buyer is actually thinking or deciding. It creates the illusion of progress but often masks uncertainty about whether the customer is truly ready to buy. Today’s buying decisions are longer, riskier, and more complex than ever. They involve multiple stakeholders, shifting priorities, and…

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